The CRIMBITS countries
Jim O'Neill at Goldmans has graciously decided to admit four, no doubt very grateful, new countries into the BRIC category. Brazil, Russia, India and China have done quite well over the nine years since the BRICs were invented. The caveat is Russia, which remains highly dependent on oil and gas prices, and has institutions which are, shall we say, not fully trusted by everyone. But the other three have been firmly endorsed by events as serious players - well beyond the traditional emerging markets category. The lucky new candidates are South Korea, Turkey, Mexico and Indonesia. I am slightly surprised to see South Korea in here, as it's already an OECD member, with GDP per capita on a par with several European countries (though not quite caught up with any of the Western European EU members). It is ranked around 32nd in the world in GDP per capita - depending on exchange rates - higher than any of the original BRICs (Russia at 54 is the highest of those). But I guess if...